Get Involved in Promoting Water Efficiency and Sustainability!

*If you live in the city of Atlanta, click here to find out about the Sustainable Building Ordinance.*

Find out what your local utility is doing to promote water efficiency programs.

As a consumer and citizen, you can urge your local water utility to do a better job promoting water efficiency. Find out what your water provider is and is not doing.

Does your local water utility:
• Have a program to find and repair water leaks and reduce other inefficiencies?
• Have a rate structure that is fair, tiered to encourage conservation, while securing the utility’s fiscal integrity?
• Offer incentives for installation of water efficient appliances?

Does it protect green space that allows rainwater to be absorbed by the soil and become “base-flow”—underground water that sustains our waterways during dry periods? Does your local government support programs to purchase green space and enforce laws that protect stream buffers, floodplains and wetlands?

As a voter and informed citizen, you can urge your local government to take actions to use water more wisely and reduce the amount of hard surfaces (parking lots, roads and rooftops) that are pushing rainwater away, wasting it rather than allowing it to seep into the ground and become base-flow. These programs can save water and money.

Ask your government to promote water conservation. The most important thing that your local government can do is to establish and annually fund a water conservation program to promote efficiency measures and offer incentives, such as rebates for new toilets and other water efficient appliances. Cobb County is a star among metro Atlanta governments with a staffed program and a budget of $400,000 per year. The most important thing that your local government can do is to establish and annually fund a water conservation program to promote efficiency measures and offer incentives, such as rebates for new toilets and other water efficient appliances. Cobb County is a star among metro Atlanta governments with a staffed program and a budget of $400,000 per year. www.water.cobbcountyga.gov/efficiency.htm

Urge your city or county to put a water conservation program in its annual budget, and encourage officials to make sure that all their buildings are water efficient.

Sign up for the Georgia Environmental Action Network (GEAN). GEAN is an email alert system focused on keeping Georgians aware of legislation and policies that impact our natural resources. GEAN Alerts will encourage you to contact your elected officials about specific legislation and issues and make your voice heard. Click here to sign up.